Pre-Workout Pancakes!

Apparently, I’m good at making pancakes. I promise, I wasn’t trying to mislead any of you in my previous posts about hating recipes or being a terrible baker meant for Pinterest Fails. I just seem to have a knack for throwing a bunch of ingredients together to come up with fluffy, cakey, accidentally gluten-free griddle cakes full of fruit and love. ❤

No fails there! 😀

So, lately I’ve been taking the time on Saturday and Sunday mornings to experiment with different pancake recipes for my pre-workout meal. While meal frequency, or the number of times one eats in a day, doesn’t appear to affect body composition or performance, nutrient timing certainly can. Nutrient timing is the timed ingestion of macronutrients–that’s carbohydrates, proteins, and fats–to enhance performance and recovery.

Current pre-workout recommendations include an intake of 1-2 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight along with 0.15-0.25 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight 3-4 hours before exercise. Fats should ideally be limited to prevent gastric upset. For me, that breaks down to 65-130g of carbohydrates and 10-17g of protein. Between these pancakes and my immediate pre-workout snack of a couple rice cakes, I fall on the lower end of the carbohydrate intake with higher protein intake. Post-workout, aim for 20-30 grams of high-quality protein (that means animal protein OR a combination of legume and grain proteins) along with .75-1.5 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight. Again, based on my bodyweight, that’s 49-98 grams of carbohydrates, and I average about 50g in my post-workout meal. Hey, these pancakes could do double-duty! 😉 (I also take a pretty snazzy pre-workout supplement that I created in my very own labora–er, I mean, kitchen!)

Now, the moment I’m sure you’ve been waiting for…the recipes! I PROMISE, these do NOT have that weird damp sponge/omelet texture you get with most protein pancakes. I used Bob’s Red Mill Garbanzo Bean (Chickpea) Flour as the base for both of these recipes.

Of course, these bad boys can be frozen so you can thaw a few out in the morning. The best part? These macros are for the WHOLE recipe. That comes out to three nicely-sized pancakes for me!

GLUTEN-FREE BUTTERNUT SQUASH BLUEBERRY PROTEIN PANCAKES

80 grams butternut squash, cooked and mashed

90 grams egg white (3 medium)

30 grams chickpea flour

1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used a whey/casein blend; other blends or plant-based would work well here, but 100% whey may change the texture)